Discovering the Wolf
by Lord Elrond of Hogwarts
Summary: What happened the night the remaining Marauders found out about Remus’s lycanthropy? Will they abandon him or work with him? Who else will find out? Will anyone be attacked? Do we know? One-shot


A/N- This one-shot is for the Three Girls and Jennifer, the formers finally ending their bugging. I just want them to know that I want a chapter of CoJ for this… Oh, and talk to my bot Elladan if you like LotR! Just send me a message with Elladan as the subject if you want to talk to him!! He's really just a doll. J Now, enjoy Discovering the Wolf!!

Discovering the Wolf

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters because then I would have more than seven books to come and the sixth would be out already. *winks* I do, however own, wait—this plot is pretty much JKR's also, so I own the words I use. Deal? So those lawyers can go back to their lair and emerge to feed on other unsuspecting people who do not use disclaimers. Enjoy the story!

Summary: What happened the night the remaining Marauders found out about Remus's lycanthropy? Will they abandon him or work with him? Who else will find out? Will anyone be attacked? Do we know? One-shot

It was the day before the full moon and Remus Lupin was tired, at least more than usual. He had huge bags under his eyes and he felt extremely melancholy. He just grunted as Sirius Black, one of his best friends and the most handsome boy in second year, plopped on the couch next to him. 

"Hey Remus!" he cheerfully greeted him. Getting no reaction, Sirius stared at the completely full common room. "Hey, buddy, I, er, need to talk with you."

Remus looked up at him, eyes ablaze. "Must you really speak with me right now, Sirius? I really don't feel like talking!" he snapped. 

Sirius looked a bit taken aback for a moment then said, "Yes. It is very important that we, er, verbalize _right now_ in the dorm." Sirius had stressed the words "right now" and it gave Remus a queasy feeling in his stomach. He just nodded and got up, hoping that he would retain his lunch.

Heading up to the boys' dorm, Sirius began to seem nervous. He kept checking over his shoulder at Remus, which the aforementioned boy took as Sirius's way of checking if he was still following. Sighing, the boys reached the dorm door and opened it. Sirius quickly shut it, cast a locking and Anti-Eavesdropping charm on it. Now Remus was very uncomfortable.

"Remus, we need to talk." Sirius started the conversation as if he had just seen Remus for the first time that day.

"Yes, I know, Sirius," Remus said uneasily. "Hence the reason you brought me up here."

"Okay, how should I say this?" Sirius sat down on the edge of the bed Remus had positioned himself on. "Rem, I was chosen, out of the three of us, to talk to you about something. The three of us, that is to say James, Peter, and I, have been doing a bit of research and made a, er, discovery." Remus's eyes widened. Oh my gosh! It was _this_ talk!

Remus's brain began to scream in protest. _They can't know! They can't! What are they going to do! They will abandon me and tell the whole school and then I will have to leave and go home and—**Hold on, Remus boy. **_A more reasonable voice broke into his thoughts. **_You don't know for sure that they know of your lycanthropy. Beat around the subject a bit. Find out for sure. But do not, DO NOT, give anything away. _**

"What sort of discovery did you make without my help, Sirius?" Remus said, trying to play into a joke.

Sirius looked serious, no puns about it. For the first time in the whole history of knowing Sirius, he looked serious and not to just make a joke about that being his name. His handsome face features were solemn and grim.

"About you, Rem. You know what I am talking about. We need to talk about this."

**__**

Don't panic! That strong voice ordered in his head. **_Act as though you have no idea what he is talking about! Then subtly change the subject…_**

Remus furrowed his brow as if in deep concentration and shook his head. "No, Siri, I have absolutely no acknowledgement of what you speak." **_Oh, so formal Remus!_** That strong, nagging voice started again in his head. **_Why do you not call yourself Shakespeare or Poe while you're at it? Way to be subtle!_** Remus mentally kicked that annoying voice. He was now seriously considering just going to St. Mungo's or a Muggle psychiatrist to get rid of that thing. 

Sirius gave him a small smile. "I knew you would act this way. We took bets. Only Peter was stupid enough to think that you would fall into my arms, crying and apologizing that you should have told us while telling me all about it." He gave a small laugh. "Trust Peter to be so dense as that." 

__

What should I do? Should I tell him? Remus' brain was screaming now, unsure of what to do. Sirius leaned forward. "There's no use in denying it, Rem," he said. 

Remus got up and made for the door, Sirius bounding in front of him, blocking his way. "Sirius," Remus said in a tone that clearly stated "do not bother me". "Get out of the way. _Now._"

"No, Remus. I will _not_ get out of the way. We _are_ talking, whether you like it or not. Don't make me use one of those hexes James and I came up with." Sirius eyed Remus as if to say 'Do you really wanna mess with me?' "Now sit down so we can talk," he said forcefully causing Remus' already jelly legs to give way. Sirius laughed and pointed to the bed. "At least sit comfortably, but safely _away from the door_."

Remus moved and sighed. There was no way he was getting out of this! 

"Remus?" Sirius quietly pulled him out of his reverie. "Can we talk now? Please? Imagine what James'll do if we don't!"

__

Don't move. He won't know then! The panicking voice in Remus' head returned. **_Oh yes. That won't look suspicious at all!_** The other voice conflicted. This seriously disturbed Remus. He decided to give into Sirius, as much as he could, just to get rid of those nagging voices! 

"Remus? What's going on with you? Why can't you tell _us_ about _this_?" Sirius sounded exasperated. 

Remus saw red. How could Sirius possibly think that this was something that he, Remus, should go bragging about. All of a sudden in a flash of emotions flying through their barriers, Remus got up and screamed. He screamed like he was being murdered, like he was pouring out his soul. 

"I COULDN'T TELL YOU GUYS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT SOMETHING I GENERALLY WISH TO TELL PEOPLE! IT'S NOT SOMETHING NORMAL, SIRIUS! IT'S NOT EVEN SOMETHING THAT CAN BE REMOTELY CURED! I DON'T FANCY GOING AROUND AND TELLING PEOPLE THAT I TURN INTO A MONSTER ONCE A MONTH, ESPECIALLY WHEN I THINK IT SCARES PEOPLE. AND IT DOES! IT DOES SCARE PEOPLE! EVERYONE WHO KNOWS, BESIDE MY PARENTS AND DUMBLEDORE, EVERYONE BECOMES WARY OF ME! I DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE ANY MORE FRIENDS!" 

Sirius was now pale with his mouth gaping open in shock at Remus. "Rem," he said fiercely, "we're your friends. We would never abandon you. How could you think such a thing?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "OH YES!" he continued to rant. "HOW COULD I NOT REALIZE THAT A FEW TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS, OR EVEN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLDS, WOULDN'T ABANDON ME AS GROWN ADULTS DO? AS YOUNG CHILDREN DO? AS EVERYONE DOES?"

Sirius couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You should be able to trust us! We tell you everything!" he screamed, though not as loudly as Remus. 

"HA!" Remus huffed and made for the door. However, with one simple flick of Sirius' wrist, that plan was soiled. He turned back around, eyes glistening with frustrated tears and face redder than red. "What do you want _now_?" he asked, his voice deadly soft.

Sirius gathered all the dignity he could must, stood up straight, and walked right up to Remus, so that their noses practically touched. Looking him straight in the eye, Sirius whispered with the same amount of fierceness, "I want to talk about it. _We _all want to help you."

Remus gave a harsh laugh. "Sure you do," he said, his voice now sarcastic, "until you realize what I _really_ am. Until you realize the thoroughness of my lycanthropy. You think you know but you really don't." tears now threatened to pour down Remus' face. How had it all come to this? Well, he was going to have to leave Hogwarts now anyway, he might as well tell Sirius. "You might as well know." A dark look passed over Remus' face. "It's always here. The wolf. He only comes out to the naked eye once a month. That fact scares everyone who was not scared away by the once-a-month thing almost immediately. Now you can go report to James…." Remus' voice shook and died. 

"Remus," Sirius said, now with a compassion that only came because he saw how much his best friend was hurting, because he finally realized some of what he went through. "That doesn't scare us. You must know how much research we did. Don't undermine us. We read more books than _you've_ even looked at in your life. We read autobiographies. We did it all. _And_ we would never abandon you." Remus looked at his friend at these words. They sounded so… sincere. **_Don't be fooled! He is just trying to keep himself from being attacked. Pack your bags and say sayonara!_** Curse that voice. But it was right. Remus ran over to his bed and began to pack his things in his trunk. A groan told him that Sirius was not at all pleased. 

"Don't you even try it, Remus," a voice sounded from the door that made Remus stiffen as he turned around. "You're not going anywhere," James said with a sad smile. "We heard it all and we still aren't going to 'abandon' you."

"I'm going," Remus said curtly as he resumed his packing. "Once you guys realize what I truly am, what I am capable of, which will set in soon, you'll be happy."

"No, Remus!" James pulled Remus' arms away from his trunk, successfully stopping his packing. Remus' eyes turned momentarily amber and, with an inhuman strength, Remus whipped James' arm down with his so that it was a bit painful. 

"Do you see now? See the danger? See what I am capable of? I _won't_ stay here because I know how this little façade goes. You pretend to be my friend so I won't hurt you, but then you will be scared of me behind my back. I might as well leave." Remus resumed his packing, but this time ferociously. 

"Sweet Merlin, Remus!" James suddenly burst. "Of course we see the danger! We've seen the danger for _months_! Do you really think that we would have approached you with such an accusation if we had not been absolutely sure? Merlin, you must see that by now! You are not leaving! We want to help you and you are going to let us!" What happened next was totally unexpected.

Remus leapt up and tackled James in one swift motion. He pinned him on the bed by the throat and looked malevolently into his eyes. "I'm leaving. I am sick of always having other children be afraid of me." Not even the combined efforts of the remaining three Marauders could pull Remus off of James until he felt he should pack again. He thought he'd won. He didn't want people talking behind his back. He'd rather leave his new friends. 

"_I_ certainly will not let you leave here, Remus. I don't care what you do to me. Our friendship means more than your silly nightmares. We all want to help you!" James said, but in undertone. He grabbed Remus by the shoulders and forced a semi-reluctant Remus to sit on the bed. "Why do you act like this?"

Eyes now almost overflowing with salty tears, Remus spoke. He had to. "Everyone acts like this with me. I am only saving everyone a lot of time. I'm a monster. A complete _monster_."

"Remus, you aren't a monster to us. Let us help you, please?" Sirius pleaded from next to James.

"Remus, it doesn't matter whether or not you want us to help because you know how stubborn we can get," James said with a slight smile. Remus laughed slightly, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. He knew that sincere tone and it had just worked its way through to his brain. They would definitely stick by his side. 

"Thanks, guys," he said. "Though I really can't stand your little stubborn arses sometimes," he said playfully. The two stubborn boys swatted Remus' arm and the Marauders ended up staying up all night, talking about how stupid Remus seemed and Remus defending himself.

~*~*~

The next day in class…

"Class," the DADA teacher began, "today we will be learning about Dark creatures. In light of the recent attacks in the United States, we feel you should cover werewolves. These books I am currently handing out will tell you all and more than you need to know." The Marauders all looked at Remus and smirked. Remus rolled his eyes and scribbled on a piece of paper. 

__

How to Know a Werewolf Inside and Out

James bit his lip in an attempt to stop the laughter as their teacher rambled on and on. These four should really write their own book…

A/N- So, how did you like it? I am going to write fics about a young werewolf I think, like one-shots that all connect sort of. Like my last one was getting the bite, now I have discovering the bite. I'll see what I do next about everybody's favorite wolf. So leave me a review and tell me what you think!


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